Undauntingly this time of year makes me feel reflective. I reflect mostly on internal things - like personal goals I've accomplished or not... This year has been difficult to measure and yet all around me I see so much growth. Growth in our property; the horse facilities growing in size and taking on a character and life of it's own, for example. Personally I feel like I've not accomplished much, but honestly this past year I have created and sold more crocheted items than ever before. Go figure. Perhaps I am, as the saying goes, my own worst enemy. Regardless, I always find myself reflecting on the good and bad things and where I am in my life.
Like everyone I have my share of secrets. Nothing so exciting and dramatic as you might imagine! Just things I keep hidden inside - personal dreams that seem to silly to share with the world, for example. Although I often think I dream big, when I hear about other's dreams mine seem to pale in comparison. It's always been this way for me. I have no real vision. A perfect example is our Dutch doors on the barn. I was thinking they would be painted red and have the traditional cross section painted in white - the standard Dutch door one sees on barns all over. My son home on leave told me to think outside the boundaries and dare to be different. What?? I think I actually caught my breath and held it. Different how? Different why? Different - why not???? So that led me to start thinking about our individual style and how we make the Red K Ranch our own. The DH has gotten into this as well and now we find ourselves talking about the uniqueness of our place and how perhaps when people drive by they will look for our barn because it is DIFFERENT.
I am very much a Libra and very much compartmentalized in my thinking. So often my ideas reflect a very rigid (stoic?) view. Not that this is a bad thing, but it hardly lends itself for individuality and creativity. So as 2012 comes to a close I am changing my way of thinking. I am going outside my "norm" and stretching the muscles in my brain (LOL) to find those things that make me unique. It will be interesting to see where I am this time next year!!!
Thursday, November 29, 2012
Wednesday, November 28, 2012
Return of the Redhead
I have been telling myself for WEEKS now to BLOG. Not only is it therapy but I genuinely miss reading everyone's posts. So in spite of myself here I am!
Catching up..... Job is going very well and I actually got the good news I will move from a contract position to full time come Jan 2, 2013. I haven't been approached yet by HR, which is a tad bit troublesome. And there's also the discussion of salary to go along with that. Everyone has told me to expect an 8% decrease from my current rate. Although this isn't devastating, it's not the best news. We'll just have to make it work as we always do.
I am still not on speaking terms with my mother and I don't expect that to change any time soon. Over the past two weeks things have occurred to make that even less of an option and quite honestly, I'm okay with it. What is an even bigger shock is the realization I am facing regarding another relative. It's pretty amazing how true colors come shining through. The truth will always come out. Luckily my sister and I are closer than ever and I truly value our relationship. She's awesome!
The barn is all but finished! And it looks amazing! The DH has done an incredible job of pulling it all together with what money we have had to do so. Here is a pic of how it looks now. The unpainted area is where our Dutch door will go and that will have to wait until Spring. The other end doesn't have any doors at the moment. We are working on a temporary wall for that end to block off any bad weather we may get through winter. The horses are doing GREAT. They have had their vet visit and he gave them both a clean bill of health. He looked at our feed and hay and said we were doing a great job!
You might recall the special order blanket I was making? Well, the larger it got the less I liked it. I thought it pulled the work too much and no manner of blocking seemed to help. I mailed it off to the woman in Canada and gave her a full refund. As it turned out she loved it! And promptly paid me for the full amount! What an awesome surprise that was! Additionally I had the best craft show ever at a small church bazaar the first weekend of November. My DH came with me and was a real trooper for the day. The traffic through the small area was unbelievable and people were buying! I made $78! I've also had several sales directly off the Etsy shop and then I just finished a special order baby afghan yesterday for a coworker. I'm currently working on a signature ranch afghan in bright orange and forrest green. I'm about 1/3 of the way complete.
Well, that's about it for now. I hope you all are doing well. I'm going to try my best to catch up on some of your blogs. Take care!!
Catching up..... Job is going very well and I actually got the good news I will move from a contract position to full time come Jan 2, 2013. I haven't been approached yet by HR, which is a tad bit troublesome. And there's also the discussion of salary to go along with that. Everyone has told me to expect an 8% decrease from my current rate. Although this isn't devastating, it's not the best news. We'll just have to make it work as we always do.
I am still not on speaking terms with my mother and I don't expect that to change any time soon. Over the past two weeks things have occurred to make that even less of an option and quite honestly, I'm okay with it. What is an even bigger shock is the realization I am facing regarding another relative. It's pretty amazing how true colors come shining through. The truth will always come out. Luckily my sister and I are closer than ever and I truly value our relationship. She's awesome!
The barn is all but finished! And it looks amazing! The DH has done an incredible job of pulling it all together with what money we have had to do so. Here is a pic of how it looks now. The unpainted area is where our Dutch door will go and that will have to wait until Spring. The other end doesn't have any doors at the moment. We are working on a temporary wall for that end to block off any bad weather we may get through winter. The horses are doing GREAT. They have had their vet visit and he gave them both a clean bill of health. He looked at our feed and hay and said we were doing a great job!
You might recall the special order blanket I was making? Well, the larger it got the less I liked it. I thought it pulled the work too much and no manner of blocking seemed to help. I mailed it off to the woman in Canada and gave her a full refund. As it turned out she loved it! And promptly paid me for the full amount! What an awesome surprise that was! Additionally I had the best craft show ever at a small church bazaar the first weekend of November. My DH came with me and was a real trooper for the day. The traffic through the small area was unbelievable and people were buying! I made $78! I've also had several sales directly off the Etsy shop and then I just finished a special order baby afghan yesterday for a coworker. I'm currently working on a signature ranch afghan in bright orange and forrest green. I'm about 1/3 of the way complete.
Well, that's about it for now. I hope you all are doing well. I'm going to try my best to catch up on some of your blogs. Take care!!
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